Display Characteristics and the Impact on Usability for Stereo

Over the past decade, the number of electronic display technologies available to consumers has risen dramatically, and the capabilities of existing technologies have expanded. This proliferation of choices provides new opportunities for visual stereo presentation, but also new challenges. The methods of implementing stereo on an electronic display, optimized for the original capabilities of the original displays, may no longer be the best choices. Features such as response time, frame rate, aspect ratio, sync timing, pixel registration, and temporal modulation of grayscale (brightness) and color can strongly influence the process of selecting an optimum presentation format for a given display technology. Display performance issues such as brightness, contrast, flicker, image distortion, defective pixels, and mura are more critical in 3D imagery than in 2D. Susceptibility to burn-in limits the implementation choices for a display that is to be used for both 3D and 2D applications. Resolution and frame rate establish the overall capability for representing depth, and also establish the performance requirements for the engine providing the 3D material. This paper surveys the capabilities and characteristics of traditional displays such as CRT and LCD panel, and a broad assortment of newer display technologies, including color plasma, field emission, micromirror and other reflective systems, and the general classes of microdisplays. Relevance of display characteristics to various stereo presentation formats is discussed, with description of laboratory experimentation to provide hard numbers. Recommendations are made regarding the stereo formats to be used with various display technologies, and the display technologies to be used with various stereo formats.